The weather in Southeast Alaska is great for mud but not for baseball. Soon, that will no longer be an issue in Ketchikan though, where the Borough recently completed renovations on the Norman Walker Field.
Ketchikan High School’s baseball team hadn’t set foot on the new field yet. They went all the way to Vero Beach, Florida in mid-April for their first on-field practice. Right now though, the team is really looking forward to practicing at home.
“I’m a baseball nerd, this just – I could just stare at this field all day,” said Coach Andy Berntson. He’s looking out over a sea of clean emerald green turf.
“Some of these freshmen will never play a high school game on dirt in Ketchikan and they’re lucky. My kids, much younger, they’re gonna forget what playing on gravel was like, period.”
The types of grass that tuft baseball outfields in the Lower 48 don’t grow in Ketchikan – too much rain and not enough soil. Pretty soon though, that won’t be an issue.
The Borough recently finished renovating Norman Walker field – where the high school baseball team plays. The Borough funded the renovations – which cost about $5 million for the turfing and amenity upgrades – through a bond approved by Borough voters in 2021. Berntson said the upgrade is a long time in the making but they did a great job with it.
The baseball season began for the Kayhi Kings at the beginning of March. Berntson said that this year, like in the past, the climate has prevented them from getting outside to practice during the early part of the season. Instead, they’d be playing in the high school gym and batting cages.
That’s where the trip to Florida comes in. Berntson has been coaching the team for 18 years and has been organizing this trip for the last three.
“I do think the kids that grew up in Alaska and play in 30-40 degree weather with sideways rain, and sliding through gravel, I do think there’s a real value in getting out of here and seeing the competition,” Berntson said of the trip. He added that it was an opportunity for his team to shake off the rust and play in what he called ‘real baseball weather.’
“And as we move forward, its definitely an experience those kids can hopefully value in the rest of their lives, and certainly this year, and then appreciate those kinds of things the community supports them for,” he said.
The Kayhi Kings had only played a couple games in Sitka before they went up against the Viera High School Hawks at USSSA Space Coast Stadium in Brevard County, Florida. Berntson said the boys played hard for being a team early in the season going to bat with the baseball factories of South Florida.
“It’s hard to knock the rust off and get your reps in and feel comfortable about playing when you’re bouncing around a gymnasium. And that’s a contributing factor. And then part of it is just getting used to the flow of the game,” he said.
With the completion of turfing the home field though, Berntson said the challenges they face every season will get a little easier.
Berntson grew up playing on this field. He and his parents moved to Ketchikan from the Midwest when he was 10 and he remembers looking out over the gravel diamond in dismay.
“And what I was looking at just wasn’t a baseball facility,” he said, looking out over the empty field. “Over time, you know, grew to love it. It became home. Of course, we always want better for our kids.”
UPDATE: Shortly after this story was produced, the Kayhi Kings got a surprise. Ahead of their series in Juneau against Thunder Mountain and Juneau-Douglas Yadda.at Kale High Schools, they got to practice on the new field early. Coach Berntson said it was “absolutely awesome.“
